Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs

Name: Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 95 min
Ingredients: 40 oz Chicken (Whole); Aromatic herbs (to taste); 2 cloves Garlic; Salt (to taste); Black Pepper (to taste); Chili Pepper (to taste); 4 tablespoons Butter; Lemon Zest (to taste)

Very often when we are waiting for some guests, I need to decide what kind of meat to prepare for dinner: beef, pork, duck, rabbit, or chicken, almost all the time I pick chicken. Most probably when you will choose to cook a duck, rabbit, or beef, some of your guests may not eat this kind of meat.

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Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Herbs on white table.

The safest way for you is to put on the table baked chicken. I have never met a person that doesn’t eat chicken at all. They may not love all the parts of the chicken, but for sure they love eating a specific part of the chicken. Because of that, chicken is my best option when I cook for multiple people.

Also, chicken is a very versatile meat that we can combine with almost everything. Another advantage of chicken is that it cooks a lot easier than other types of meat.

If you’re asking what chicken recipe should you make, let me share with you my favorite grilled chicken recipe that I cook for my family.

Today, I decided to cook an entire chicken, seasoned with herbs and lemon. This recipe will get you all the time delicious and succulent chicken.

It will take you only 15-20 minutes to season the chicken, after that, you will need to leave it in the fridge for 2 hours if you’re limited on time, or if you have more time, then I will suggest seasoning the chicken a day before and to leave it overnight to marinate well.

The more you will leave it in the fridge seasoned with all the herbs, the more intense taste you will get. When it is dinner time, all you will need to do is to put it in the oven, and in the meantime, you can prepare something else.

Quick Note: Even if you don’t prefer to eat the skin from the chicken, a good idea will be to leave the skin on when you put it in the oven. By leaving the skin on, you will prevent the chicken from drying out while it bakes.

Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to use a bigger amount of butter because when you put it into the oven. The butter will melt, and the excessive fat will remain in the pan. This will make your chicken more succulent and flavored.

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Needed Ingredients:

👩‍🍳 Step-by-step Directions

Answering Your Questions:

Recipe Card:

Needed Ingredients:

Whole Chicken ± 2.65 lbs (1.2 KG)
Aromatic herbs to taste
Garlic (2 cloves)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Chili pepper to taste
4 ¼ tablespoons (60 g.) of Butter
Lemon Zest to taste

👩‍🍳 Step-by-step Directions

Our first step will be to grease the chicken with the marinade and put it into the fridge to absorb the flavors for a few hours.

How to Make the Marinade for a Whole Chicken?

Let’s start with the aromatic herbs. I picked up rosemary, thyme, and basil. Also, you can use other aromatic herbs that your family loves to eat like sage, parsley, or tarragon.

Chop all the aromatic herbs together with the garlic, because later, it will be easier for you to grind them with the mortar and pestle.

Slicing garlic and aromatic herbs to prepare the marinade for a roasted chicken.

After you grind the aromatic herbs, add coarse sea salt to facilitate the removal process of aromatic oils from the herbs.

Salt the marinade for the whole chicken.

The next step will be to add a few black peppercorns.

Adding black pepper into a chicken marinade.

Now, take a lemon and pill the zest, but be careful to pill only the yellow part, because the white part is bitter.

Adding lemon zest into a whole chicken marinade.

After that, add the room-temperature butter and the hot pepper flakes.

Melt butter with chili flakes into a white bowl.

Mix well all the ingredients and we are done with the marinade.

Chicken marinade with aromatic herbs and lemon.

The next step will be to marinate the chicken. But before we will do that, make sure that you cleaned well the chicken, and removed the unwanted parts, including the spine of the chicken.

After you cleaned the chicken, grease it well with the marinade on both sides.

Quick Note: Insert a part of the marinade between the skin and the chicken breast. In that way, you will avoid the permanent problem to obtain a dried chicken breast.

Now, put the chicken on the baking pan as you see in the picture below:

Cover the chicken with aluminum foil and put it in the preheated oven at 180°C (350°F) for about 50 minutes.

But all the ovens work differently, and the time can differ from oven to oven for about 10-15 minutes. After 40 minutes, take a look at how your chicken looks. Keep in mind that we don’t need it to cook the chicken until the end for now.

To obtain a golden skin, we will need to remove the aluminum foil from the top of our chicken, 20 minutes before it will be roasted completely.

So, in total, our chicken should be in the oven for about 70-80 minutes.

One of the signs that will show you that your chicken has been cooked enough, is that the bones on the wings will start to come out of the meat.

After 20 minutes without the aluminum cover, our chicken will look like that:

Our whole roasted chicken is ready to be served. You can serve it whole, or you can cut it into pieces.

Cutting a roasted chicken on white table.

I decided to serve it portioned because it makes it easier for you to serve it during dinner to your guests.

If you want, you can add chopped parsley for a little bit of color and a fresh taste. If you are passionate about the citrus flavors, you can add also a little bit of lemon zest, or splash the meat with lemon juice.

Here is the result that I got:

Golden roasted chicken with herbs on it.

Enjoy your meal and I hope that you liked the recipe!

In that night, I decided to serve the chicken near a couscous with lemon and parsley:

If you are interested, check out my easy and delicious couscous recipe. Also, I can recommend serving this glazed chicken with some French Parmentier potatoes or Air Fryer Smashed Baby Potatoes

Answering Your Questions:

How do I know when the chicken is cooked?

Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken. The thermometer should read 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the chicken, such as the thigh or breast.

How do I let the chicken rest after roasting?

Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. This allows the juices to redistribute and the meat to become more tender.

Can I add vegetables to the roasting pan?

Yes, you can add vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions to the roasting pan for added flavor and nutrition. Toss the vegetables with olive oil and seasonings before adding them to the pan.

Can I use different herbs for the chicken?

Yes, you can use different herbs such as oregano, sage, or basil depending on your preference. Adjust the amount of herbs to your liking.

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